I did not know this about food return

[Racheyg]

I was in Waitrose and saw an sign to say frozen quorn sausages £1.00, thought bargain so picked some up.

Paid for my stuff and felt the need to check my receipt and the sausages were £2.50 didn't realise I got gluten free ones as the were in the section where the other quorn sausages were.

Went to customer services and apparently they don't take back frozen or chilled food, even though I hadn't left the store and explain they were in the wrong section.

Did anyone else know this?

I would be wondering if that was even legal!

I was shocked as they normally have excellent customer service. But she was adamant they couldn't take them back

Did they refund you in the end?

To be fair they have rules so people don't take back chilled foid after leaving it on the counter all day giving the next person food poisoning. The assistant probably couldn't put the transaction through the til

Of course they can't take frozen food back! What do they do, resell it? After it's been with you and they don't know for how long?

Maybe it depends why you take it back. I've taken back meat before that had gone off days before the expiry date and was given a full refund. Maybe they use their discretion for cases like that.

I hadn't even left the store. I said that I though they were the £1.00 on offer and not the gluten free ones which were still full price

run no they didn't

If the price is wrong they have to refund you. They can't not.

I just asked DH who used to work for Morrisons.. he said "that's a load of bollocks"

Obviously different store to Waitrose but policies can't be that different!

They should have refunded you. Email customer service.

They can't guarantee how long you've taken them away for so they're not allowed to refund... at least that's what I was told when I worked there when I was 17.
They should have refunded as they were in the wrong place though, I would've refunded the difference.

Thanks guys, I will have to try and dig out receipt now so I can contact customer services

They can see how long ago you were served by the receipt, so they should go by that. There has to be certain rules regarding frozen and chilled food for health and safety purposes.

rolling I had literally just paid for them and not left the store.

For the sake of £1.50 I'd be dropping it!

They don't have to honour the price..... they can refuse it and take off sale for 48 hours

But it's bad customer service that's for sure!! I'd refund ( retail manager) and let you keep it/discard it

sick it's more the fact I didn't know this. Something similar happened in Tesco once and they happily refunded me.

So you made a mistake by not reading the sign properly and you want your money back?

simon* no they were in the wrong section. Thanks anyway.

Shocking customer service, particularly given that the receipt would show you'd only just paid for them. I get the impression Waitrose aren't training their staff as well as they used to.

They wouldn’t be going back on the shelf if your returned them anyway. They would just get binned as their responsibility for temp control has ended when you purchase.
That’s a bit off of them. I wouldn’t have accepted it and asked to speak to someone else. Why did you leave?! Yes it was your fault that you picked the wrong sausages but they are usually quite good with customer service and discretion

I thought Waitrose had a policy which went above your statutory rights and that you could return products you were unhappy with, whether chilled or not. I'd definitely moan more - if they were wrongly labelled then they should refund you the difference.

I knew this, don’t know how as i’ve never had to return a chilled item. I can understand why they wouldn’t tbh, they wouldn’t have any control over how the item had been stored once it left the store, potentially putting a customer at risk of food poisoning etc.

I do tesco online shopping and they always refund if there’s a problem with meat etc.